


Imperfect Balance

by Morgyn Leri (morgynleri)



Series: One Night In Moscow [7]
Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, GFY
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-12
Updated: 2011-06-12
Packaged: 2017-10-20 08:54:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/210977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgynleri/pseuds/Morgyn%20Leri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He thinks she's studying him, maybe evaluating him for something, though what scale he's being measured against, he doesn't know.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Imperfect Balance

Pepper holds out her hand, lips pressed together in a thin line, almost as soon as she steps into his workshop. She doesn't really have to tell Tony what she wants from him, or how she knows, not when he knows she got in last night. Vanko's still at her apartment, then, and told her Tony had visited. Not a surprise, but still irritating.

Her hand closes around the key before he has a chance to pull back, capturing his hand as well. "Thank you," she says, her voice surprisingly gentle, and very quiet. Tony isn't sure why she's thanking him, or what he should say in response, and after a moment, she lets him pull his hand away with a faint shake of her head.

"Wait." He finally speaks when she turns to leave, meeting her gaze more easily than he expects he should be able to. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the arc reactor." It wasn't what he'd intended to say, but what he wants to say seems caught in his throat. Impossible to say when he thinks maybe Vanko is right, and Pepper has made her choice. "I didn't know how."

Pepper is quiet a moment, watching him with an expression he can't quite read. He thinks she's studying him, maybe evaluating him for something, though what scale he's being measured against, he doesn't know. He hopes he passes.

"I don't need protected from information, Tony." There's a small smile on her face that takes the sting out of the words, though he can't help but feel like he's disappointed her somehow. "Will you tell me what you said to Ivan while I was gone?"

Tony makes a face, and turns away, going to get himself one of his shakes. "What about it?" He doesn't know that he wants to tell Pepper just how much of an idiot he made of himself, trying to get the Russian out of her apartment and out of her life. It looks even more petty now than it did immediately after he left, and he's pretty sure she's going to be pissed if he tells her. Though why she isn't pissed now makes him wonder if maybe Vanko didn't tell her everything - which means this is his chance to get ahead of the game.

She's still standing there when he turns back around, fortunately, even though her expression is distinctly less friendly and open than it was a moment ago. There's the faint pinch of her lips, the barely-noticible narrowing of her eyes that tells him she's not amused, and might even be getting irritated with him.

"I told him I'd give him whatever he wanted - money, a house, whatever - if he left you alone." Tony shrugs uncomfortably. "It wasn't enough." He doesn't know if he should tell Pepper what Vanko had said would make him leave. Or if he should tell her he had offered himself, an offer he's still not sure if he meant or not; if he'd made the offer because if he did, he might get Pepper too. That he thinks he maybe wants both of them is something he's not willing to say out loud, not yet, because that would make it real.

"I know." Pepper smiles slightly, a confidence in her expression that hadn't been there before, a certainty of something that Tony didn't know. He _wants_ to know, and wants... to be part of it, maybe. That, or try to bring Vanko down, because he wants to be the one putting an expression like that on Pepper's face, and it's not fair that the Russian managed it first.

He feels like he's a teenager with his first crush again, confused and uncertain about everything, and unable or unwilling to admit it even to himself. Jealous and wanting and... it's all more than he wants to deal with, and he frowns, trying to ignore it.

"Why him, Pepper?" he finally bursts out. "He nearly killed you in Monaco, whatever he's here for, it's not just for you, and he's a criminal at best."

Pepper presses her lips together, her smile vanishing as if it had never existed. "I don't need to justify myself to you, Tony." She tightens her hand around the key he'd handed to her. "And I don't need you to protect me from myself. Or from him."

"I'm not asking you to justify yourself, I just want to understand why you chose him over me." Tony grits his teeth against the frustration that's threaten to spill over.

Giving him a look he can't read, Pepper shakes her head. "I didn't choose him over you, Tony." She doesn't elaborate on that, though Tony thinks there's something more that's just barely held back. Turning away, she walks out before he has a chance to ask her what she means by that.


End file.
